Web based tool to support successful submission to the Ethics Committee

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Pedro Graca

This project was developed with the purpose of providing a centralised online framework which was designed to support successful submission to the School of Computing Ethics Committee. This project came as an alternative to the current system which is strongly paper-based, decentralised and not very efficient.
The methodology used for the development of the project was based on a RAD or Rapid Application Development approach. This approach emphasises a strong collaborative atmosphere between the developer and the client in order to prioritise the design and implementation over the planning of the system. By performing this type of approach software could be written much faster which makes it easier to change requirements and evaluate.

onEthics was comprised of a web site which provided online step-by-step guidance to researchers when submitting a proposals to the Ethics Committee. This step-by-step procedure associated with the ability of the automated completion of additional documentation greatly assisted the researchers so that a successful submission could be achieved. The system also offered a comprehensive set of features which from an administrative perspective, greatly improved the process of feedback which culminating in quicker analysis of proposal and the feedback could be given in a shorter period of time, resulting in a faster final decision to an application